it felt like at the time it was the voice of a whole generation of americans. >> a big [ bleep ] to all the politicians. >> reporter: if green day is is the voice of a new generation of americans it is a brash and uncompromising one also, misunderstood. >> anti-american, anti-war -- >> reporter: they may be critical of the policies that took the nation to war in iraq, but they insist they are not anti-american or not anti-military. the drummer is immensely proud of his father who flew helicopters in the vietnam war. >> my dad is a veteran of the army, and for us to travel around the world and to be viewed as idiots and [ bleep ] because we're americans, kind of bummed us out. >> to me "american idiot" is one